Polar Discovery brings you the stories of science on ice. The polar regions are experiencing unprecedented environmental changes that are having significant impacts on global climate, ecosystems, and society. Using the latest engineering advancements, scientists are studying the changing climate at the heart of the icy Arctic Ocean, the melting glaciers of Greenland, and the creatures of Antarctica's Southern Ocean.

Dive and Discover immerses you in the excitement of ocean exploration. Through daily stories, photos, and videos, our Web site brings you on board research expeditions that use deep-sea tools and vehicles, allowing you to become part of teams of researchers making new discoveries.

September 19 to 28, 2007Join oceanographer Amy Bower as she travels on the R/V Knorr to the Labrador Sea to install a deep water mooring and technology to observe currents. She will be posting interactive updates on the OceanInsight website, which has special enhancements for the visually impaired.

November to December 2004Two teams of scientists share the R/V Laurence M. Gould in the Antarctic "springtime", Thanksgiving to Christmas. Ocean sampling will look at bottom-dwelling worms, free-floating plankton, and their companion salps (a type of jellyfish). Read the daily journals and questions from curious students following the cruise.

A series of three expeditions from 2002 to 2004, the Edge of the Arctic shelf covers cruises that represent the physical oceanographic component of the Western Arctic Shelf Basin Interactions (SBI) Experiment. The overall goal is to understand how the Arctic shelves communicate with the interior basin from a coupled physical--biogeochemical standpoint.

November to December, 2001Read WHOI Senior Scientist and geochemist Ken Buesseler's letters to family as he took part in a research cruise on the RSV Aurora Australis in and out of Hobart Australia heading due south to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.

Immerse yourself in QuickTime panoramas of shipboard activities on a 'jelly animal cruise' in the North Atlantic. We invite you to explore this site and offer ideas for future enhancements

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is dedicated to advancing knowledge of the ocean and its connection with the Earth system through a sustained commitment to excellence in science, engineering, and education, and to the application of this knowledge to problems facing society. Learn more »